16Dec15

Shadowy masonic figure implicated in Italy's darkest days dead at 96

Licio Gelli, a masonic grand master implicated in some of the darkest chapters
of Italy's post-war history and one of the worst scandals to rock the Vatican,
has died at the age of 96.

Gelli, a fascist sympathiser who was the founder and leader of of the notorious
P2 masonic lodge, passed away on Tuesday evening at his villa in Arezzo,
Tuscany, his family said, according to local media.

P2, or Propaganda Due, was an influential secret network that counted
politicians, judges, bankers and senior military figures amongst its members.

Its tentacles stretched throughout the upper echelons of the Italian
establishment, although an attempt to have its members jailed for political
conspiracy and attempting to destabilise the state finally failed in 1994.

It is best known internationally for having been at the heart of a murder
mystery involving both the mafia and the Vatican which centered the body of
"God's banker" Roberto Calvi being found hanging beneath London's
Blackfriars bridge in 1982.

Despite being outlawed in 1981, the lodge was later shown to have been
involved in a major 1990s political corruption scandal known as tangentopoli
(bribesville) and the creation of an anti-communist paramilitary group, Gladio.

But its global notoriety is largely down to its role in the collapse of the
Vatican-linked Banco Ambrosiano.

The death of Calvi, the bank's chairman and a P2 member, was initially
deemed to have been a suicide.

But subsequent investigations pointed to it having been a murder which Italian
prosecutors believe was the work of the Sicilian mafia.

The organised crime syndicate had used Ambrosiano to recycle funds, some
of which were moved out of Italy via the Vatican bank.

No-one was ever convicted for carrying out or commissioning Calvi's murder.

Gelli was investigated over the death but never formally indicted. The location
of Blackfriars bridge was seen as indicating a link to P2 because members of
the illegal group referred to themselves as 'frati neri', Italian for black friars.

- Gold ingots -

Around the time of P2's outlawing, Gelli fled to Switzerland. He was arrested
there in 1982 but subsequently escaped from prison and was a fugitive until
1987.

Switzerland agreed to extradite him for prosecution for his role in the
Ambrosiano collapse.

First convicted in 1982, his sentence was not finally confirmed until April 1998
and he was allowed to serve that term and several others under house arrest,
which he remained under until his death.

New charges of huge tax fraud were filed against him two years ago and the
state has taken ownership of his villa, where, in 1982, police seized 179 gold
ingots weighing 168 kilogrammes (370 pounds).

Born in Pistoia, Tuscany on April 21, 1919, Gelli first became involved in
politics as part of Benito Mussolini's fascist movement and he volunteered to
fight with future dictator General Francisco Franco's forces in the Spanish civil
war.

He fought briefly with Italy's anti-Nazi resistants, the Partisans, at the end of
World War II, but later joined the neo-fascist MSI political party.

According to Italian media, Gelli worked for the CIA during the war, a time
when the US secret services also enlisted the help of the mafia in an effort to
counter the influence of one of Europe's biggest Communist parties.

Having joined the freemasons in the 1960s, Gelli founded the P2 lodge in
1970 and by the time it was outlawed 11 years later it had at least 962
members, according to a list seized from his villa.

The most prominent figure known to have been in the shadowy group was
Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon who was to go on to become prime
minister.

Gelli also spent part of the 1970s in exile in Argentina, where he forged close
links to the Generals who installed a military dictatorship in 1976.

[Source: France Presse, Paris, 16Dec15]

This document has been published on 17Dec15 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.